Month: January 2016

Matt Clear

Graduated in 2010 with a major in Music Production and Engineering (MP&E). Principal instrument: Voice.

Position: Customer Success Manager at Pitchbook Data. Matt finds, trains, and maintains clients for a “Google for venture capital” business. He earns mostly salary, with opportunities for commissions on top of that.

Overview: Upon graduation, Matt got an mostly-unpaid internship with a producer in Seattle, while bartending and waiting tables for money. Eventually the producer moved away, and a bar client mentioned that his place, a contractor the National Cancer Institute, was hiring “cancer specialists” (basically working at a cancer information hotline.) He put in the good word, and Matt got the job. He stayed there over 2 years, it was an OK job, but dead-end, so he looked for something better. He was helping a friend, who worked at Pitchbook Data, quit smoking. When her company was hiring, she knew he wanted a new job and recommended him for the job and coached him on what to say during interviews.

Choice quotes: “I’m always open to opportunity and to learning something new.”

“Being an MP&E student taught me about collaboration, to be a good listener first. To be a cancer specialist is to listen to people, meet them where they are, and give them info to take it a step further. That’s exactly what being an engineer or producer is all about.”

“I wish Berklee taught us more more about professional networking and how to present yourself as a professional & demand that kind of respect. Also how to handle our student loans (and our last day of school isn’t the time to do that).”